LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ – Elliott Otmani (La Ciotat, France/Bonaparte) scored both of the Rider University men's soccer team's two goals in a 2-0 shutout of MAAC preseason favorite Quinnipiac Wednesday afternoon on Ben Cohen Field. With the win, the Broncs' fifth straight, Rider improves to 8-2-0 (3-0-0 MAAC). The Bobcats slip to 2-7-1 (1-2-0 MAAC).
 
Rider struck just two minutes and 21 seconds into regulation, as Otmani jumped on the rebound of a Clement Bourret (Orleans, France/Lycee Jean Giraudoux) shot and slipped it inside the left post.
 
For the next 84 minutes, David Pastuna (Robbinsville, NJ/Robbinsville) and the Broncs' defense fended off the Bobcats' best attempts to equalize, with Pastuna making three saves. In the 87^th minute, Bourret sprinted past his defender into space before crossing to Jose Aguinaga (Madrid, Spain). The senior left it off for Otmani in the box and he shot through traffic inside the right post for the insurance tally.
 
Quotes and Notes
 "Quinnipiac is the defending regular season champs, a really good program. They're really organized and well-coached. The lesson we learned today is that we have to put away our chances. We got the early goal. We probably could've had a couple more in the first half and probably could've had a nice cushion in the first half. Credit Quinnipiac. They came on, were pressing, sending numbers forward. We were getting counters but still didn't convert. Better late than never. It's a good win against a quality opponent. Now we have a week off."
 
"Dave (Pastuna) was huge. He's having a big year. Plus, he's giving us really good leadership back there. The couple times we broke down, he was there to bail us out. Especially that one save late in the game that he had on Dally. It was huge." – Rider Head Coach Charlie Inverso
 
- The Broncs received votes in two national polls this week – the United Soccer Coaches National Poll and the College Soccer News National Rankings – in addition to maintaining the top spot in the USC Northeast Regional Poll.
- Over the Broncs' five-game winning streak, they've outscored the opposition, 13-2.
- Rider has now won its last five games against Quinnipiac and leads the all-time series, 5-2.
 
Broncs By The Numbers
- Otmani has scored all of his team-leading seven goals in the last six games, including at least one goal in each of the last four and two in a single game twice in that four-game span.
- Pastuna posted his third clean sheet of the season and the ninth of his career.
- Bourret recorded his team-leading seventh assist of the year on Otmani's first goal and extended to eight assists on his second. Aguinaga sits one assist behind Bourret on both the team and conference leaderboard with seven assists following his helper on Otmani's second goal. 
- Rider took a 17-5 edge in shots and a 6-3 advantage in shots on goal.  
- Both teams took four corner kicks.